Other big games coming out (that I don’t care about): Gears of War 3, Postal III, F.E.A.R. 3, Infamous 2, The Sims Medieval…

There’s a lot of sequels there, but very few of them have the look of being “yet another in the franchise” like EA Sports games or Call of Duty. There’s some impressive tech advancements, as well as attempts to shake up the industry.

I’m gonna call Game of the Year right now – Portal 2. I reckon Batman: Arkham City will come in a close second, but Valve look like they’ve improved on their already impressive game-making ability. Plus it’ll be one of the few games this year that will make us laugh (intentionally). I think given the tension of all the natural disasters already this year, we need a release valve. Er, pardon the pun. Needless to say, I am extremely excited to play Portal 2.

While I have my Hat of Prognostication on:

Duke Nukem Forever will be a nice retro throwback, but a tiny bit underwhelming. The one-liners from Jon St Jon will last until September, though.

Alice will be dark, twisted and beautiful, but the gameplay will be a little samey and frustrating.

Deus Ex will be great, but leave us wanting a little more out of the game. A no-kill speedrun will be published five days after release.

Rage will have awesome tech, squandered on corridor shooting and a nothing story.

Skyrim will eat everyone’s November (and RSS feeds during October/November). People will complain about it being too console-y, although will love the mix-n-match weapon/spells handedness.

DOTA 2 will be delayed to midway through 2012 as Valve steathily rolls out updates to Steam to accommodate the new community features of the game.

Blizzard will release the last update to WoW, then Diablo III, then announce Titan… all in 2012.